Attention: News Directors
Monday, Dec. 13
Free Interviews Available
Geminid Meteor Shower Display Starts Tonight!
• View the annual Geminid meteor shower at its peak, and possibly glimpse up to a hundred meteors an hour!
• Visible from Sunday until Wednesday evening, the best viewing time for your area is sunset Monday until dawn Tuesday.
• The source of the Geminid shower is the asteroid Phaethon, which is about three miles wide. Every year in mid-December, Earth plows through the cloud of dust trailing the asteroid. The dust cloud is created from bits and pieces of the asteroid that break off as it travels through space.
• Bits of the asteroid -- some as small as a grain of sand -- traveling 80,000 mph will hit the Earth's atmosphere, and turn into glowing meteors.
• Talk to a NASA expert about the Geminid meteor shower and get tips on viewing the shower in your area.
| Who: | Bill Cooke Meteor shower expert NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. |
| Contacts: |
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